By Susan Bromley

Staff Writer

Ortonville- When Brian Johnson was 4-years-old he was in a bad auto accident with his mother, who suffered severe head injuries when the vehicle she was driving struck a dump truck.

Brian was physically unscathed, but the accident altered his family life and ultimately, it set him on the trajectory that recently led to him being named the new pastor of Ortonville United Methodist Church.

“When I looked back on the accident in later years, I really discovered that God had set me aside for a purpose,” said Johnson, who went through a difficult time as a teen after his parents divorced. “I was raised all my life in the Presbyterian church, my family was very active in church, but it wasn’t until I was in high school when I truly discovered Christ and his love for me in a time that was crucial in my life.”

Johnson, who moved with his father to Bay City after the divorce, became active in the First United Methodist Church there, mentored by a good friend in the church who kept him “on a straight and narrow path.”

After graduating from Bay City Western, he began landscaping as his first career, later working as a lumber business manager for a decade. In the early 2000s, he started in earnest down the path that would lead him to ministry after he and his wife, Jenny, settled in Freeland with their two children, Thomas, now 27 and a paramedic, and daughter Melissa, 21, a Spring Arbor University student.

Freeland UMC lacked a youth ministry program, but the need was apparent, so Johnson stepped up.

“It was a very vibrant, growing community, but they had challenges for young people as they journey through those very tender years,” said Johnson. “We started with a group of eight kids and were up to 30 kids when I left.”

He exited youth ministry in 2012 after answering a call to pastoral ministry and attending school at the Lake Huron Retreat Center, where he became a licensed local pastor, fully qualified to do four-fold ministry— word, sacrament, order and service.

He began serving his first appointment as a licensed local pastor at Bay Port and Hayes United Methodist Church in 2013, and was reassigned to OUMC with his official start date July 1. He has two years left in his theological course of study, which he does at the Methodist Theological School of Ohio and Garrett Seminary in Evanston, Ill. as part of his appointment.

“We absolutely love this community,” said Johnson, who said that he agrees with wife Jenny’s assessment that Ortonville feels like they are home. “I just look at life as seasons. We are called to a place for whatever that time is, I hope it is for some time. I’m really hoping we can grow and strengthen the unity in this congregation even moreso and provide opportunities to welcome others to belong and be a part of our church community. The people of this church have a heart for service and mission. There are neat ministries going on here that we are excited about. Come worship with us and get to know OUMC as a place where you feel you belong, and can grow and be safe.”

For more information, visit www.ortonvilleumc.org.